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Talk:Afghanistan
Has Afghanistan ever been successfully conquered by an external power? :I think the Mongols did the best. TR 20:20, November 27, 2009 (UTC) ::Yeah, but even they didn't rule there. To be sure, they didn't really rule in many places at all. ::Alexander failed to conquer it but he didn't really get beaten as Afghanis like to claim. More like he realized it wasn't worth his trouble and lost interest. Turtle Fan 20:29, November 27, 2009 (UTC) In Turtledove's works this seems to be the case. He seems to underestimate the task rather seriously. He's got the Nazis ruling there in ItPoME, apparently with no trouble, and the Lizards--who would have had a hard time keeping Antarctica pacified if they could have gone there without freezing to death--doing the same. "A momentous occasion" indeed. :The Nazis would have had no problem butchering the population until it had pacified the country or emptied it of Afghanis, which ever came first. ::They most certainly would have had problems doing that. Perhaps not moral qualms, but as a practical concern it's quite impossible. So many nooks and crannies to hide in in all those mountains, and to use as staging areas for raids. The Nazis would need to follow the locals into those caves to do the killing, and it's far likelier that they'd be the ones not to come out again. Turtle Fan 20:29, November 27, 2009 (UTC) :::Perhaps genocide in combination with your suggestion with local strongmen? Afghanistan, as we are unavoidably aware of, is very tribal. Certain groups would fit the Nazi definition of Aryan, others not so much. Appeal to the Aryans, give them the benefit your largesse, in turn they keep the non-Aryan's at heal. Something like that. TR 20:39, November 27, 2009 (UTC) ::::Not unlike our strategy in '01 of giving shit to the Northern Alliance and the anti-Taliban warlords. That produced some temporary success. Turtle Fan 21:01, November 27, 2009 (UTC) :On a somewhat related note, in Stirling's Draka books, the Draka wound up impaling and/or fire bombing like 2/3 of population out of existence before it was pacified. TR 20:20, November 27, 2009 (UTC) ::I'm not sure even that's enough. Kill and bomb that much and the country's too poor for people to sustain themselves, so all they have left to live for is hate. Thus, they continue fighting even if it means they die. Turtle Fan 20:29, November 27, 2009 (UTC) Perhaps HT means that they bought off local strongmen who kept vocal opposition down to a dull enough roar that the "conquerors" were able to declare victory as long as they didn't actually try to do anything with it? Turtle Fan 20:09, November 27, 2009 (UTC) :That probably explains the Race's victory in part. They seemed willing to work with locals (see Poland) if it kept people calm. TR 20:20, November 27, 2009 (UTC) ::That does seem to have been the strongest suit of their colonial administration, yes. I think Atvar made a point, early on, of saying it was in the manuals. The manuals could actually be applied in that case, so even the most hidebound Lizard could implement successful policy--You might even say, the more hidebound the better. Even a blind squirrel, eh? Turtle Fan 20:29, November 27, 2009 (UTC)